NSW govt calls for outside help on open data

The NSW government is calling on the private sector to suggest new ways to reuse or reinterpret data held by its agencies under a newly established crowdsourcing initiative.

NSW Premier Mike Baird last month launched the innovation program to fast-track the release of de-identified open data and make more data sets available through data.nsw.gov.au.

NSW Minister for Finance and Services Dominic Perrottet on Wednesday said the expression of interest phase is now open and called for ideas from private industry.

“The private sector is much better placed than we are to come up with these solutions – that’s why we are tapping into the power of the crowd,” Perrottet said.

He said the NSW government had already made good progress in releasing datasets to the public.

“Large amounts of data have already been made available online through our NSW Open Data Portal, however, we want to explore other uses for our data and what de-identified datasets can be fast-tracked for release to developers.

“Greater transparency and an accelerated release of data could help with the creation of new products and apps that could provide wider benefits for the whole community.”

Expressions of interest can be lodged until October 13 on the NSW Government’s eTendering website or at data.nsw.gov.au.

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